Meanwhile, U.S. women's coach Doru Gheorghe is simply disrespecting the integrity of this event and has lost two winnable matches by once again benching our best player Gao Jun, just as he did in 2010. The ITTF should suspend this guy.

mmnb I understand your frustration as the US was once a formidable team with gao jun, wang chen, and crystal wang, however I think he is thinking to the future of US women's table tennis. The more experience our youngsters get the better. If you look at the draw vs romania who is a very formidable young team that has gotten some success the girls of the US did a fine job. One more win and it could have easily turned into something closer than it was.

I am glad they are giving those girls a good international experience. It's much better than what they have done for the mens team if you ask me. I would like them to win a couple draws however Gao Jun is there to coach and mentor. If they want a win they will play her, but as long as the US team can compete in division 1 I don't think it matters so much this year. Especially if you expect any of those girls to be able to help Gao Jun in the olympics in the teams event...

At the recent Olympic trials, Gao Jun destroyed ALL of these players that Gheorghe is using instead of her. We already had to tolerate the "get experience" thing at the 2010 world team championships as Gao sat on the bench watching her teammates go winless. If they need more experience, they should compete in regular ITTF events. My feeling is it's disrespectful to the world championship to not put your best team forward. If you're not there to win, why go?

I can't believe that Gao's non-playing is solely the coach's decision. She has a special status in American table tennis, and if she does not play that surely also reflects her own wish and attitude. Blasting the coach for this is just silly and ignorant. If this were such a blatantly absurd choice, why would Gao go along with it? Maybe she just doesn't want to play, period.

Also, she didn't "destroy" all the others at the trials. In fact, she looked rusty and vulnerable, for the first time ever on American ground. Several players won games against her. She herself said that she had not prepared for the trials (it was a last minute decision), and it's not clear whether/how she prepared for the Worlds.

And finally, playing Ariel and Lily is in any case the right decision (already confirmed by the results). Playing Erica and Judy in winnable matches is another matter.

I can't believe that Gao's non-playing is solely the coach's decision. She has a special status in American table tennis, and if she does not play that surely also reflects her own wish and attitude. Blasting the coach for this is just silly and ignorant. If this were such a blatantly absurd choice, why would Gao go along with it? Maybe she just doesn't want to play, period.

It's silly and ignorant to expect a coach to try their best to win? That is a LOSER'S attitude.

She went 10-0 in the trials. That's after not playing competitively for two years. She's the best by a wide margin.

I can't believe that Gao's non-playing is solely the coach's decision. She has a special status in American table tennis, and if she does not play that surely also reflects her own wish and attitude. Blasting the coach for this is just silly and ignorant. If this were such a blatantly absurd choice, why would Gao go along with it? Maybe she just doesn't want to play, period.

It's silly and ignorant to expect a coach to try their best to win? That is a LOSER'S attitude.

Can you at least READ what I wrote? This is why you come across as so biased and blind.

I watched the trials. Gao had never played worse. No wonder, because she's busy with her club. She lost 2 games against Ariel, 2 games against Lily, 2 games against Judy (!), 1 game against Erica. Unbelievable.

If Doru doesn't play her, that's because she's not in shape and/or doesn't want to play. I'm sure this is more her decision than Doru's. She's beyond the status where someone would be able to tell her when to play or not.

Can you at least READ what I wrote? This is why you come across as so biased and blind.

Expecting our coach to use our best players to try to win is biased and blind? Sorry, the object of sports is to try to win.

You're still not reading - why?

I wrote "blasting the coach" - ie criticizing the coach alone as you do in bombastic terms, rather than wondering why coach and player (Gao) together chose this lineup.

I also wish that Gao would have played, at least at #3.

Here's a parallel:Werner Schlager didn't play either in Austria's first two matches. Today they even put Fegerl at #2, who's not even in the top 100. Do you think the coach chose the lineup without consulting Schlager and sat him out against his will? (Of course they still won, but that's another story...)

The coach runs the ship. He and Gao aren't co-coaches. If he's unable to control his players and make a decision to put our best team forward to try to win than he's not the one for the job. What serious sports organization would tolerate a coach not trying his best to win, especially at two world championships in a row?

This isn't a single-elimination format. The goal is to get the best possible finish at the end of the tournament, and especially finish in the top 18 in order to stay in the Championship division. Surely Doru and Gao have discussed the strategy for the tournament as a whole, and for some reason (which I don't know either) it doesn't involve Gao playing against Romania and Belarus. In 2010 she played in two decisive ties in the second stage (the single-elimination phase), against England and Italy, which decided who would stay in the championship division and who could go down. So maybe that's again the idea.

If this were all so terribly outrageous and unsportsmanlike, why would your idol Gao go along with it? And do you really think this hasn't been discussed before, when she committed to playing at these Worlds rather than running her club in California?

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